Each year over 6.5 million people in the U.S. develop chronic wounds, including various types of chronic ulcers, and cost the healthcare system around $25 billion. Millions more are affected across the globe, and the incidence of chronic wounds is expected to increase particularly in countries like the U.S. with a growing elderly population. Pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, are common in nursing homes, long-term rehabilitation facilities, and intensive care units. Care for these and other types of chronic wounds is a long-term effort that requires extensive supplies and can be wasteful. Clinicians currently tend to only use a fraction of larger bandages for wound care, and they would benefit from an optimized process reducing bandage waste when treating wounds of various profiles and complex contours.
There is a need for a wound analysis and care system by clinicians to capture chronic wound morphology and generate in a timely manner waste-reducing custom bandages to promote healing. The group proposes to deliver a prototype of a system that can be easily used by clinicians for analyzing chronic wounds and producing waste-reducing custom bandage templates.
Existing solutions have been developed regarding the classification and analysis of wounds and the innovation of more personalized bandage types, but there remains a lack of solutions concerning computerized bandage customization for the individual wound. Extant technologies pertaining to wound analysis and bandage production methods have not been developed to work in conjunction with each other in a streamlined way. The project intends to successfully analyze wound images and create a schematic for a custom bandage design that can be carried out.
There is a need for a wound analysis and care system by clinicians to capture chronic wound morphology and generate in a timely manner waste-reducing custom bandages to promote healing. The group proposes to deliver a prototype of a system that can be easily used by clinicians for analyzing chronic wounds and producing waste-reducing custom bandage templates.
Existing solutions have been developed regarding the classification and analysis of wounds and the innovation of more personalized bandage types, but there remains a lack of solutions concerning computerized bandage customization for the individual wound. Extant technologies pertaining to wound analysis and bandage production methods have not been developed to work in conjunction with each other in a streamlined way. The project intends to successfully analyze wound images and create a schematic for a custom bandage design that can be carried out.